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Local author Jessica Lidh will be the featured presenter at the regular meeting of the High Country Writers at the Watauga County Public Library on Thursday, January 11, 2018, at 10:00 am. The program is free and open to the public.

Ms. Lidh is a Young Adult novelist, blogger and mother who loves old things. The inspiration for her first novel, The Number 7, came when she worked in a Swedish antique shop located in a 19th-century farmhouse in Maryland. “One rainy day when working alone, I stumbled upon an antique rotary phone,” she said. “I kind of spooked myself into believing it would start ringing, and I was faced with the dilemma of whether to answer it or not. I ran home from work and started writing the story that day.”

Lidh’s interest in her own Swedish history inspired the lessons that surface in her book. “I really wanted to focus on this idea of lost family stories,” she said. “I’ve grown up in a family of storytellers. My grandparents have blessed me with stories of their lives, but I know that when they're gone, so, too,will their stories. When people read The Number 7 I hope they take away a new appreciation of their family ancestry and family stories. Those stories are so important to share, whether you're on the telling or the receiving end.”

The Number 7 begins with a mysterious phone call from16-year-old Louisa's antique -- and disconnected -- phone. A somehow-familiar voice describes a lost family secret about Louisa's grandfather and his daring involvement in resisting the Nazis in his native Sweden during World War II. Piecing together each clue she can find, Louisa begins to see how her grandfather's guilt and shame continues to haunt her own father, and the rest of her family, decades later, planting seeds of doubt that threaten to tear them all apart.

Ms. Lidh will not have books available for sale, but they are available on Amazon and she will sign books brought to the presentation.
High Country Writers has been “energizing writers since 1995.” Regular meetings are at the Watauga County Public Library on the second and fourth Thursdays of most months from 10 am to noon, and speakers’ presentations are co-sponsored by the library. HCW members present writing / publishing skills workshops from 10 am to noon the first Thursday of most months,partnering with Watauga County Arts Council to offer them at Art Space. For more information and a current calendar, visit http://highcountrywriters.tripod.com/. Guests are welcome.